LEX News

H.E. Williams, Inc. has been a traditional hard goods manufacturer for close to 100 years. “Turning sheet steel and aluminum into these nice, highly finished lighting products,” says Randy Jones, Engineering Manager at Williams.

But for years, Williams has also been putting various types of control devices — whether a power supply or occupancy sensor—into fixtures, as a way to bring controllability to the space and create additional energy savings. That was good for the time being, but their engineers and product developers also saw the next big innovation coming down the pike: how power over ethernet and lighting could peacefully coexist.

“The reason we’ve jumped on this train with PoE is because it’s low voltage. LED is low voltage by its nature, and DC, so it’s kind of a natural fit electrically. Plus, the push for smart buildings–that drumbeat is getting louder and louder.”

They turn light into electricity or vice versa: the inkjet inks developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer IAP can be printed on solid substrates as well as on flexible foils. In effect, solar cells and organic displays can be produced fast and cost-effectively.

You may have read in our March issue that outdoor lighting best practices continue to be disputed, with representatives from both the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) weighing in on controversial questions surrounding blue light, light levels, and CCT in outdoor area lighting and street lighting in particular. We plan to bring you more on the viewpoints that were raised by this reported Strategies in Light panel discussion back in February and are considering various delivery formats for that information.

A recent report from Research and Markets indicates that municipalities will be converting streetlights to LEDs due to efficiency reasons, just like many other lighting applications. So why are distributors choosing to take a pass on this ripe market?

During the darkest hours, people are still walking through campus — it’s pretty much a 24/7 operation even if it’s not a high-traffic time. From late-night library stints to postgame parties during football season, college campuses know no “closing time.” How can outdoor lighting address the unique needs of a college campus?